Eat, drink and be Zeeland

Restaurants

You’ll find so many different specialised restaurants, each with their unique location – on the beach, down in the harbour, up on the dike. Each chef creates their own recipes, so you’ll have a palette of choice. Some of their dishes reach culinary heights in one of the numerous Michelin-starred restaurants. But a simple helping of freshly-fried ‘kibbeling’(typically off-cuts of pollock), straight off the counter at the fish stall, can also be a delight. Just eat it with your hands (we say: “mee je ‘ande ete”). Whether you eat meat, fish or just vegan, the Zeeuwse specialities embrace them all – something for everyone. Check all the restaurants in Zeeland.

Zeeuwse produce

Zeeland has a good many delicious local products, spanning meat and fish to fruit, drinks and sweet delicacies. Many of them bear the regional certificate of  a Zeker Zeeuws Streekproduct  (‘zeker’ = sure, ‘streek’ = locality/ ‘terroir’). It was raised, grown, fished or produced with Zeeuwse inputs, and this was done sustainably with respect for the environment, people and animals.Zeeuws meat and asparagus

Many of our restaurants serve very decent beef raised on our own soil. Our lamb and mutton comes from grazing the salty meadows of Noord-Beveland – well deserving the cachet of ‘pré-salé’. You’ll taste it.  

A Dutch or Zeeuwse dish with asparagus traditionally comprises ham and egg. But every cook will have their own version – and a real foodie would be well advised to try them all! But do hurry, for time is short. The asparagus season in Zeeland starts at the end of April and, true to tradition, closes on 24 June (Saint John the Baptist).

Zeeuws fruit

Zeeuws fruit rightly earns much admiration.  You’ll see why when you cast your eyes over the orchards of Zuid-Beveland. Apples and pears flourish here. Do stop and get a bag of freshly-plucked delights from a road-side stall. You may even be able to pick your own. Lovely in a fresh apple pie or pear compote. You’ll no doubt make the pastry with Zeeuwse flour.

Sweet delights

Our sweet delicacies are numerous. Take the Zeeuwse bolus, made with (or without) real butter. Any Zeeuwse baker and confectioner will have their own in stock. As with our Zeeuwse boterbabbelaar candies. Nice to pop in your mouth – and to take home as a gift from Zeeland.

Zeeuwse fruit drinks

We make some great beverages from our apples, pears, grapes, black currants and Zeeuwse barley. Try our Zeeuwse apple juice and the pear-based Perelaere juice, a nectar. Our black currants lend themselves to many drinks – with high health ratios. Or how about some wine or fruit jam? Our climate underpins some fine grape cultivation. Try a glass of wine from the De Kleine Schorre vineyard on Schouwen-Duiveland, alongside a plate of Zeeuwse mussels, oysters, Oosterschelde lobster and some flat fish. Or are you more a beer person? That’ll work too. Zeeland counts many breweries, with a wide range of beers.

Zeeuwse recipes

You can make your own Zeeuwse bolus bun, or an entire dish with local produce. All the ingredients are out there, straight from the nearby landscape. Get them from the local farmer or off the fish quay. Pluck a Zeeuwse recipe – and do post your photo of the fruit of your efforts, tagging it with @zeelandvisit!